Hip & knee
Stiff ankles and weak hips write most knee complaints. We test both before treating the knee.
The knee is an obedient joint stuck between two opinionated ones. An ankle that lost dorsiflexion after a sprain years ago and a hip that will not hold rotation under load will write knee pain between them, and the knee itself will keep testing clean while it hurts.
c-07 / in your words
Does your knee behave like this?
- 01Aching at the front of the knee on stairs and after long sitting
- 02The knee drifts inward at the bottom of a squat and you can see it on video
- 03A hip that pinches in the crease rather than aching in the muscle
- 04An old ankle sprain that never fully got its range back
c-07 / how it is worked
The hip and knee protocol
phase 01 / test above and below
Assess the ankle and the hip before the knee
Ankle dorsiflexion measured against the wall on both sides, hip rotation and abduction strength, single-leg stance and step-down scored. The knee is examined last on purpose. It is the joint that keeps testing clean while it hurts.
phase 02 / restore
Give back the range the knee is compensating for
Extremity work at the ankle and hip, soft tissue through whatever is genuinely restricting, and the drills that hold it. If an old sprain never got its range back, that is usually the oldest entry in the chain and it gets worked first.
phase 03 / load the tendon
Eight weeks where a tendon is involved, and we say so
Tendons respond to progressive load on their own timeline and no amount of hands-on work shortens it. Heavy slow loading, tracked, with the honest eight-week horizon in front of you from the first visit rather than discovered at week four.
what we test first
Ankle dorsiflexion measured against the wall on both sides, hip rotation and abduction strength, single-leg stance and step-down scored, and only then the knee itself.
how many visits
Four to six visits combined with a loading block. Where a tendon is involved the honest timeline is eight weeks, because that is how tendons respond.
when this is not ours
A knee that locks, gives way, or swelled within an hour of a twisting injury gets an orthopedic opinion before a loading plan.